IIEC officers accused of financial mismanagement and nepotism

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Questions of personal integrity of candidates short-listed for the positions of commissioners in the new electoral body threaten to deepen controversies surrounding the recruitment process.

Investigations reveal one of the candidates, who is also the IIEC Regional Elections Coordinator for Nairobi, Ms Ruth Kulundu, is the subject of audit questions on the management of IIEC funds under her watch.

The accounting concerns against Ms Kulundu are so serious that senior managers at the IIEC headquarters have frozen further release of funds to her office pending investigations on unaccounted funds running into millions of shillings meant for last year referendum.

Sources familiar with the information told The Standard on Sunday that IIEC was forced to seek fresh funds to settle bills of around Sh6 million meant for referendum officials to forestall possible litigation for delayed payments despite the money having been initially channeled to the regional account under Kulundu’s watch.

The officer is further accused of procuring goods and services worth millions of shillings in total disregard of public procurement regulations including disregarding the advice of the internal procurement team.

Sources in the know hinted yesterday that Kulundu later attempted to coerce a junior officer to acknowledge receipt of goods that were either procured illegally or not delivered at all, and when the officer declined, she was summarily dismissed.

However, when contacted yesterday, Kulundu denied the allegations. She said, "There is nothing like that," before disconnecting communication.

Constitutional principles

Among the procurements Kulundu is being accused of is the unilateral award of Sh1.7 million contract for the refurbishment of the IIEC Kasarani constituency office, Sh610,160 for an office toilet and Sh406,000 for office sofa set.

Gladys Shollei whom she directly answered to said she was not aware of the allegations. "For the time I was there I never heard anything. I was not and I am still not aware," she said.

Concerns over Kulundu’s credibility will likely rekindle interest in the criteria the IEBC recruitment panel used to arrive at the shortlist.

The revelations may further put pressure on the panel not to shortlist majority of the IIEC commissioners in regard to the Constitution requirements for consideration of "continuity" in the new election team.

Article 28 (2) of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution states that: "When members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission are selected, regard shall be had to the need for continuity and the retention of expertise and experience."

Another short-listed candidate is accused of influencing the employment of an immediate member of his family to a senior position in the Interim Independent Electoral Commission — the predecessor commission — contrary to Constitutional principles of public leadership and integrity.

Mr Arnold Wekesa Simiyu, the Constituency Election Coordinator for Embakasi, is the son of Mr Abiud Simiyu Wasike, who is on the IEBC shortlist.

The senior Simiyu, who is in his late 70s, is among the three commissioners of IIEC in the shortlist alongside Dr Yusuf Nzibo and Ken Nyaundi.

Yesterday the IIEC Commissioner confirmed that Arnold was indeed his son. "No doubt he is my son. But there is no way I would have influenced his appointment, " he said.

"I chaired the selection panel of Nyanza so I was busy in Nyanza and Western. If there are claims that I influenced his employment, the people whom I influenced should be the ones talking," said Wasike.

He added: "The positions were advertised and people applied. I did not even know that he applied. If he was selected then he won on his own merit."

Section 73 (2) (a) of the Constitution outlaws nepotism and other forms of favouritism as the basis of decision-making in public, including recruitment of public officers.

In defending the Panel from its critics, the chair, Dr Ekuru Aukot, has insisted his team was within constitutional requirement citing both Wasike’s and Kulundu’s presence in the shortlist.

Questions are likely to re-emerge on the quality of intelligence report the panel may have relied on in arriving at the shortlist.